布吕诺夫（Jean de Brunhoff）生于1899年，卒于1937年。受家庭影响，他立志成为一名职业画家，最终如愿以偿。一次偶然的机会，他受到儿子罗伦特
德
布吕诺夫（追随父亲的步伐，创作出一大批小象巴巴系列童话故事）的启发，首创图文并茂的绘本寓言故事集——《大象巴巴》，激发着一代又一代插画故事作者的创作激情。正因为这套丛书，他获得了“现代儿童图书之父”的美誉。
Jean de Brunhoff (December 9, 1899 – October 16, 1937) was a
French writer and illustrator known for creating the Babar books,
the first of which appeared in 1931. He was the fourth and youngest
child of Maurice de Brunhoff, a publisher, and his wife Marguerite.
He attended Protestant schools, including the prestigious Ecole
Alsacienne. Brunhoff joined the army and reached the front lines
when World War I was almost over. Afterwards, he decided to be a
professional artist and studied painting at the Académie de la
Grande Chaumière in Paris. In 1924 he married Cécile Sabouraud, a
talented pianist, and they had two sons Laurent and Mathieu in 1925
and 1926 and then a third son, Thierry, was born nine years
later.
The Babar books began as a bedtime story Jean's wife told their
children, Mathieu and Laurent, when they were four and five years
old, respectively. She was trying to comfort Mathieu, who was sick.
The boys liked the story of the little elephant who left the jungle
for a city resembling Paris so much that they took it to their
father, a painter, and asked him to illustrate it. He turned it
into a picture book, with text, which was published by a family-run
publishing house, Le jardin des modes. After the first book
Histoire de Babar (The Story of Babar), six more titles followed
before de Brunhoff died of tuberculosis at the age of 37. He was
buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.